The fall of Syria’s Assad dynasty last December brought a glimmer of hope to a country mired in a 13-year-long civil war. Indeed, “Syria’s current transition to a new form of government is in a category of its own,” Zaid Al-Ali wrote in April. “Desperate to avoid the mistakes that their counterparts in other Arab countries have made in recent decades, the new interim authorities under President Ahmed al-Sharaa have achieved impressive progress.”

Yet despite fragile public confidence in its transitional government, Syria faces profound threats as it seeks to rebuild, from the resurgence of the Islamic State to the legacy of the Assad regime’s chemical weapons program and family separation policy.

This edition of The Reading List offers a closer look into those challenges and considers what a successful transition might entail.

A member of the Iraqi forces walks past a mural bearing the logo of the Islamic State in Albu Sayf, Iraq, on March 1, 2017.AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images

Syria’s Islamic State Is Surging

As a new regime gets settled in Damascus, it faces a rising threat from an old foe, Charles Lister writes.

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa leaves a meeting with the Qatari foreign minister during the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Antalya, Turkey, on April 11.Ozan Kose/ AFP via Getty Images

The New Syria Is Run Like the Old

A constitution by decree gives the president unchecked powers, risking what has been an impressive transition, Zaid Al-Ali writes.

Um Mohammed holds up a photo at her house in Zamalka showing her grandchildren among those killed in chemical weapons attacks in 2013, on April 10. Anagha Subhash Nair for Foreign Policy

The Long Shadow of Syria’s Chemical Weapons

USAID funding cuts cast doubt on eliminating the country’s stockpile, Anagha Subhash Nair writes.

Sokayna Salama al-Jbawi sits with her children—(from left) Muhammad, Heba, and Nous—in her family home in the village of Baragah, Syria, on Jan. 24.Alexandra Corcode for Foreign Policy

Syria’s Missing Children

Children of detainees disappeared in orphanages. As many remain unaccounted for, their relatives fear the worst, Andrei Popoviciu writes.

A soldier holds pills inside a house-turned-Captagon factory in Al-Dimas, Syria, on Dec. 23, 2024.Fadel Itani/Middle East Images via AFP via Getty Images

What Will Happen to Assad’s Secret Drug Empire?

The ousted Syrian regime financed its war machine by producing and trafficking Captagon, Caroline Rose and Matthew Zweig write.